“Atlanta” writers revealed during the series’ TCA press conference this week that they were racially harassed in London during the filming of the Emmy-winning FX comedy’s third season.
The long-delayed “Atlanta” Season 3 picks up with characters Earn (Donald Glover), Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Van (Zazie Beetz) on a music tour through Europe. Stephen Glover, a writer on and executive producer of the series, said a racially charged incident occurred on the crew’s first night in London after a group of drunk people confronted them outside of a bar.
“This group of people walks up. And maybe one of them kind of notices Donald or recognizes him,” Stephen said. “And she stops, and they start asking if they know anywhere around here to get something to drink. I think we were talking to them for a second. It’s this girl and two or three guys.”
The woman’s friend claimed all of the “Atlanta” writers could probably break into a bar because “you guys all carry hammers,” which is a slang term for gun.
“Mind you, all of the writers on ‘Atlanta’ are Black. So, he’s making a reference that we all have hammers, and we can just break into this place, which we kind of ignored,” Stephen said. “It was so insulting, but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand. He got to a point of like if the insinuation was lost on us, he got specific and he was like, ‘You guys are Black, you’ve gone to jail and you do things like that.’ Like he kept doubling down on it.”
Stephen said the man eventually picked up his female friend who was talking to one of the “Atlanta” writers and yelled, “Run. They are going to rape you, like, rape you.”
“The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away,” Stephen added. “So, it was pretty bad.”
Donald Glover added, “We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’”
“Atlanta” Season 3 is set to debut on March 24 on FX. The show shot its third and fourth seasons back to back. “Atlanta” Season 4, debuting later this year in the fall, will be its final run of episodes.
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